In this current season of Momentos Musicales we've heard music in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Today, I thought we would consider the so-called dead language of Latin... which is not so dead after all. Latin is still an important language in music, and in particular that of Catholicism.
Latin arrived with the deployment of the Catholic church in New Spain. Not only did music composed in the the Old World arrive, but teachers also arrived prepared to instruct the indigenous populations how to write music, using Latin.
Much of the Old World and New World religious music is well-preserved in Mexico and several other locales in present day Latin America. Music most certainly traveled with the Catholic Church to the missions here in San Antonio, yet little or any of it has survived. In contrast, a trove of scores have turned up in the missions of present-day California. The music of two church composers, Ingacio de Jerusalem and Manuel de Zumaya, were brought to light in the recording Mexican Baroque, by the vocal ensemble, Chanticleer.
Zumaya's music implores the congregants, many of them Native American, to praise, proclaim, intone and sing. We know they danced and proclaimed not just in California but also in Texas by studying pictographs, many of them reproduced by the artist, Forrest Kirkland.
Latin served as the official language of the Roman Catholic Mass for well over a millennium, shaping the musical, liturgical, and cultural identity of Western Christianity.
This all changed in 1963, after the Second Vatican Council authorized vernacular Mass settings. The Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez created his widely popular Misa Criolla (Creole Mass/Mass in Native Style), utilizing not only Spanish as the textual language, but integrating into the work many traditional musical instruments native to South America, in particular Argentina. He then took one further step when he based each movement of the Mass on characteristic dances of Latin America.
Ramírez wrote of the "Credo" that it was based on the chacarera trunca from central Argentina. He further explained that this movement's obsessive rhythm emphasizes the profession of faith.
There is a most interesting approach in the recording of Ramírez's Mass by the Choral Arts Society of Washington. They reasoned that given the popular character of Misa Criolla that this should allow for improvisational moments. Here we have Luis Garay on the tumbadoras, two tom-toms with a surprising—but to my ear absolutely acceptable—cadenza. Listen in the embedded player, above.
Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote a Mass prior to the issue of the Second Vatican Council ruling that a Mass could be written in a language besides Latin. Apparently, he produced a version of his Mass in Portuguese which has been beyond my reach for today's episode. However I did find a few other interesting examples of Villa-Lobos writing in Portuguese. It's a beautiful language, well-suited to music. This performance of the version for male choir of his Choro No. 3 will give you an idea of Villa-Lobos in Portuguese. The alternate title for this is "Pica-Pau," referring to a woodpecker. You can hear the bird tapping away.
Please tune in tomorrow for another episode of Momentos Musicales. Thanks for listening!
